[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 167 (Tuesday, October 22, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5945-S5946]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Vote on Bremberg Nomination

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the Bremberg nomination?
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), 
the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. 
Sanders), the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren), and the Senator 
from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Blackburn). Are there any other Senators 
in the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 50, nays 44, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 329 Ex.]

                                YEAS--50

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     McConnell
     McSally
     Moran
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--44

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Jones
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Booker
     Harris
     Isakson
     Sanders
     Warren
     Whitehouse
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.


                Unanimous Consent Request--H.J. Res. 77

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I am rising once again to ask the 
Senate's consent to move to the H.J. Res. 77 condemning the President's 
abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria.
  Despite the Pandora's box of problems the President's decision has 
opened, the slaughter of our partners, the Kurds--and I think many of 
us on both sides of the aisle ache for the Kurds who risked their 
lives. Many of them lost their lives so our soldiers would not be in 
harm's way.
  With the strategic gains of our adversaries in Tehran, Moscow, and 
Damascus and, most troubling, the potential resurgence of ISIS, the 
President has failed to articulate any strategy at all. We have asked 
to have Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Esper, and Director Haspel come 
before us. They have canceled again today because they don't have a 
plan.
  Now, this is America at risk. We in New York know better than anybody 
else how a small group of people thousands of miles away--evil people--
can

[[Page S5946]]

cause terrorism and hurt us. There is no strategy about what to do with 
the tens of thousands of ISIS prisoners and their fellow travelers who 
had been locked up and guarded by the Kurds.
  No one believes--and I have talked to the top military intelligence 
people--that either Syria or Turkey has the interest in preventing ISIS 
from escaping that we do. Erdogan, in fact, hates the Kurds far more 
than he hates ISIS.
  So every day this lack of policy and this lack of common sense from 
the President and this White House puts American lives in danger. What 
is the best way to get the President to act? Well, my friends, you know 
it. It is you. When Republican Senators protest what the President has 
done, he sometimes acts. Witness Doral. I guarantee you my speeches had 
very little effect on him, but yours did. Well, this is far more 
important than Doral. This is America, and lives are at stake. Our 
battle against terrorism, to be fought jointly most of the time, is now 
being jeopardized. Frankly, when Leader McCarthy and Representative 
Scalise and Representative Cheney can vote for this kind of resolution, 
why should we not be doing the same? It will send a better message to 
the President than anything else we can do.
  My friend, the Republican leader, said we need a stronger resolution. 
Quibbling over words at a time when America is in danger doesn't make 
sense to me--particularly a resolution that he knows will not pass the 
House and not go to the President's desk.
  So I would plead with my colleagues, let's move forward. I plead with 
my friend from Kentucky--they are both my friends from Kentucky--but I 
plead with the junior Senator from Kentucky, do not stand in the way.
  He has a different world view than almost all of us. We talked 
earlier this morning. I asked him if he was against going after the 
Taliban and bin Laden when they hit us in America, in New York, and he 
said no. Well, this is the same kind of thing. We are happy to vote on 
his resolution. Let's vote on both. This is momentous.
  These terrorist acts from escaped ISIS prisoners might not occur 
tomorrow, they might not occur 6 months from now, and they might not 
occur a year from now, but they may. They certainly--almost certainly 
will at some point in the future, and we will risk lives: the American 
lives of our intelligence officials, of our Special Forces, and we will 
risk the security of America and spend millions of dollars.
  The sooner we can put this back--and the only person who can is 
President Trump, and the only people who can really pressure him are 
sitting right here. I would plead with my colleague from Kentucky and 
with all of us because even if he objects, we could pass this joint 
resolution within a few days to do it. Our security, the security of 
this wonderful country and its beautiful 320-some-odd million people 
deserve no less.
  Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 
246, H.J. Res. 77; that the joint resolution be read a third time, and 
the Senate vote on passage with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. PAUL. Madam President, reserving the right to object. If 
Democrats want to send our young men and women to fight in the Syrian 
civil war, let's have that debate. By all means, let's have a 
constitutional debate today on the Senate floor, right here, right now. 
If Democrats are so hungry for war, let's have that debate.
  Our Founding Fathers gave us a constitutional method to go to war. If 
there be a national security interest in Syria, let's hear it. The 
other side does not want that debate. They want to lob invectives at 
the President, but they aren't prepared to debate about whom we are to 
go to war against.
  Do they wish to declare war on our NATO ally, Turkey? Do they wish to 
declare war on our former ally, the Free Syrian Army? Do they wish to 
declare war on Syria's Assad? They don't know.
  No, Democrats just want to heap abuse on the President. They don't 
want to debate war because they have no clue on whom to declare war.
  In reality, the President made the wise decision to move 50 soldiers 
out of the way of tens of thousands of Turkish troops. Ironically, the 
President's decision may finally allow the Kurds to negotiate with 
Assad for a semiautonomous region in northern Syria. Perhaps, if the 
Kurds pledge their battle-proven fighters to Assad, they might receive 
in exchange some autonomy and a share of the oil receipts, much as the 
Kurds did in Iraq. Already we are seeing promising cooperation between 
the Kurds and Assad.
  This week, Turkey's Erdogan met with Putin. Putin already is allied 
with Assad. There is a possibility diplomacy may actually break through 
here. There is a real chance that the Syrian civil war could come to an 
end if Assad, with the Kurds' help, would agree to secure the border 
and not allow Kurdish raids into Turkey.
  The permanent war caucus on both sides of the aisle claims that 
repositioning 50 troops is the end of the world. Perhaps, just maybe, 
less of our presence in Syria will actually lead to diplomacy and, 
ultimately, peace. Only time will tell.
  I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Democratic leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I don't want to prolong this. I will 
make two quick points. No. 1, my friend from Kentucky thinks he knows 
what is better for the Kurds than the Kurds know. The Kurds hate going 
into the arms of Syria--hate it.
  Second, if our friend from Kentucky believes that any time we have a 
small number of Special Forces in different places--and we have them 
all over--we need a declaration of war, then his view is different from 
99.9 percent of America and every other single person in this Chamber.
  We do not need a declaration of war for a small number of Special 
Forces to be there to protect us against terrorism, and my friend from 
Kentucky knows that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. PAUL. Madam President, if our goal is to create a Kurdish 
homeland and to defend it for them, hell yes, we need a debate and a 
vote and an authorization of force.
  You can't just say that we are going to stay there forever. It would 
take tens of thousands of troops if you want to pacify Syria. It has 
not been pacified for 8 years. It is an utter and complete mess, and it 
is time we get the hell out.

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